Kell Brook tells Hearn “I won’t vacate my belt bring me Spence”

By Boxing News - 11/10/2016 - Comments

hearn3443

By Dan Ambrose: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that his fighter Kell Brook will not be vacating his IBF welterweight title to avoid his mandatory challenger Errol Spence Jr. Hearn suggested to the 30-year-old Brook that he vacate his IBF 147lb title, because he could then move up to 154 and have more options available to him. However, Brook wants nothing to do with vacating his IBF title. He feels he can still comfortably make weight for the welterweight division.

Brook still wants a unification fight against one of the three other champions – Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman – but none of those fights will likely happen in time for him to keep his IBF belt.

Pacquiao is looking to take a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or possibly a fight against Terence Crawford or Vasyl Lomachenko next. Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman will be facing each other on March 4 in a unification fight. Brook can’t sit on his IBF title for eight to ten months so that he can fight those champions when they’re free.

Brook’s mandatory defense is due against Spence as soon as his 120-day medical extension expires in early 2017. At that time, Brook will need to make a decision whether to fight Spence or vacate. If Brook is still having problems with his injured right eye, then it’s possible he might wind up losing his title unless the IBF wants to give him another medical extension.

Brook suffered a broken right eye socket in his 5th round stoppage loss to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin last September. Brook has since had surgery to repair his eye, but we’re not going to know if the eye will hold up under fighting conditions until he gets inside the ring. We saw how Antonio Margarito’s surgically repaired right eye closed up immediately when he started getting hit on it by Miguel Cotto in their rematch.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Brook’s eye closes up as well when he starts getting hit. If Brook makes it into the fight with Spence, he might wind up with only one eye working for him if his eye closes. That would be bad news for Brook, because he would be at the mercy of Spence’s big punches if he only has one eye working.

Hearn said this to IFL TV about the Brook vs. Spence fight:

“I spoke to Amir, and I spoke to Kell,” said Hearn. “Obviously, it’s a fight everybody wants. I don’t know if Amir would want to go straight into that fight. We want to go straight into that fight or whether he wants to come back everybody wants. I don’t know if Amir would want to go straight into that fight. We want to go straight into that fight or whether he wants to come back. Obviously, he’s had the hand operation as well. We’re focusing on what we’re doing and wants to do. I sat down with him yesterday and I mapped out all the options, and I said, ‘Look, I think you should move to 154, and he said, ‘My weights really good at the moment. I spoke to my nutritionist. I can make 147.’ I said, ‘I know you can make 147, but can you make it well?’ He said, ‘Yeah, we believe we can.’ He said, ‘More importantly, I’ve been thinking; I’m not vacating my belt.’ So I said to him, ‘There are plenty of things to look at 154.’ [Brook then said] ‘I’m not vacating my belt.’ So then I said, ‘You’ve got to fight Errol Spence. That’s a tasty fight.’ He said, ‘Good, I love a fight!’ He said, ‘I want a unification, but that looks unlikely, so if not, make the Errol Spence fight.’ I think that’s great news to fight fans, because people just presume he won’t want to fight him. Let me tell you. He’s got the bit between his teeth. The fact that people are saying that; he’s saying to me, ‘Make the fight with Errol Spence.’ So if you’re watching, Errol Spence, you’re going to get what you want, and we’re going to have a great show in Sheffield. You’re going to love the UK. We’ve got a really big fight on our hands, the IBF world championship, because I repeat; Kell Brook WILL NOT vacate his world title. I thought he would. I thought, ‘let’s move to 154.’ [Kell said], ‘I’m world champion at welterweight. I can make the weight.’”

Brook might want to reconsider his stance about wanting to fight Spence, because he’s capable of doing to him exactly what Gennady “GGG” Golovkin did in cutting off the ring on him and battering him to the head and body. Spence is arguably the best body puncher in the 147lb division today, and that’s going to be a problem potentially for Brook. As we saw in Brook’s fight against Golovkin, he was doing a good job of making him miss his shots that were thrown to the head. Where Brook had problems was when Golovkin threw to the body. Brook couldn’t dodge those shots. It was a punch to the midsection by Golovkin that hurt Brook in the 5th, causing him to drop his guard and stop covering up his face and stop throwing shots. Spence can punch to the body almost as good as Golovkin in this writer’s opinion. Brook will have problems taking those body shots.

Brook will need to stay on the move against Spence in the same way he did against Golovkin, because if he stands and fights him, then he’s going to get chopped down quickly. Spence is younger, stronger and more rugged than Brook. Spence is ready and willing to have a war. As we’ve seen with Brook, he doesn’t like wars. He likes to move, tie up his opponents, and land shots here and there. Brook isn’t going to want to hold his ground and fight it out with Spence for 12 rounds. If Brook does that, then he’s going to get taken apart bit by bit.

In speaking about a unification fight between Brook and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, Hearn said, “That’s the one we want, but you know, Pacquiao is coming off a good win against [Jessie] Vargas. I don’t think he would have gotten the payday he wanted [against Brook]. So he’s going to be looking for the big financial fight. Unfortunately, that’s not Brook. It’s a good fight. Good money. Everyone would want it, but I think Pacquiao will just be out for the [Floyd] Mayweather fight,” said Hearn.

Spence had this to say about the new of Brook deciding he wants to defend his IBF title against him: “About time 🙏🏾”

This move by Brook saves Spence the trouble of having to fight Jeff Horn for the vacant IBF title. If Brook had vacated the belt, then Horn would be the guy that Spence would be facing unless Top Rank were able to get their fighter Konstantin Ponomarev a fight against Spence. Both of those guys would be totally over-matched against a fighter with the kind of power and boxing skills that Spence has going for him.

Brook would need to come up with a great fight strategy for him to have a chance of beating Spence. Brook used a lot of holding to beat Shawn Porter in 2014 to take his IBF title. In Brook’s fight against Golovkin, he used holding, movement and quick rapid fire attacks to give him problems. It allowed Brook to last until the 5th round.

YouTube video